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WKU clinches Sun Belt’s all-sports championship

In the Hilltoppers’ final academic year before moving to Conference USA, they’ve clinched the Sun Belt’s all-sports championship by accumulating the most points based on league finishes for each program.

In the Hilltoppers’ final academic year before moving to Conference USA, they’ve clinched the Sun Belt’s all-sports championship by accumulating the most points based on league finishes for each program.

With a baseball champion still to be determined, WKU has already won five conference titles — in soccer, volleyball, women’s basketball, women’s indoor track and field and women’s outdoor track and field. The Hilltoppers also had 10 teams in all post top-three finishes in their respective sports.

“I congratulate our coaches and student-athletes on winning the 2014 Bubas Cup,” athletic director Todd Stewart said of the all-sports trophy, named for former Sun Belt commissioner Vic Bubas. “When we met as a group last August, we established winning the all-sports title as a major goal for this year. In our 32 years in the Sun Belt, we have claimed 133 total conference championships and really wanted to cap off our tenure by winning the all-sports title in our final year.

“Achieving this with a 70 percent graduation rate and over 1,000 hours of community service this year exemplifies the strength of our entire athletics program on the field of play, in the classroom and in the community.”

WKU announced its move to Conference USA in April 2013. The transition will end the school’s 31-year Sun Belt affiliation started in 1982.

The 2014 Bubas Cup is the Hilltoppers’ sixth. They also won it in 1987, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2008.

Jonathan Lintner can be reached at (502) 582-4199; follow him on Twitter @JonathanLintner.